Chapter 21
Countrycide Part 3
They left the pub and headed off in the direction Tosh and Ianto had taken earlier, from what they could see in with their limited light there didn't appear to be any signs of a struggle which meant if they had been taken then it must have been a surprise attack. The walk was starting to take its toll on Rose, they had wondered off track and she had to stop when the pain became too much for her. Leaning against a nearby tree, she pressed a hand against her wound and took a deep breath as she tried her best to push the pain to the back of her mind.
"You alright?" Owen asked, coming to stand beside her as she tried to get her bearings.
Rose nodded, pushing away from the tree she winced but managed to keep herself steady.
"Let me help you." He offered.
She looked at him for a moment before sighing, she didn't want to slow them down but she also didn't want anyone thinking she wasn't capable. He held out his hand to her and she stepped closer, putting a hand on his shoulder she leaned against him and he put his arm around her waist.
The pair set off once more, Rose gripped Owen's jacket and he held her steady as they made their way over the uneven ground. There was a road ahead and as they headed up the grassy bank Rose stumbled and cried out.
"You sure you're alright?" He asked, slowing down as they finally reached a track of road.
"I'm fine." She reassured him and was met with a disbelieving look.
"I'm fine." She repeated, looking up as she heard sirens approaching.
"Brilliant, that's all we need," He said with a sigh as a police cruiser stopped a short distance away.
"Let me do the talking, I'll get rid of him." Rose told him as a man got out of the vehicle and walked over to them.
"Who are you please?" The officer asked them.
"Special ops, Torchwood, you heard of Torchwood?" She asked him and he stared back at her with a blank expression.
"What's that a band is it?" He replied, frowning as Rose leaned heavily against Owen's shoulder.
"What's wrong with her?" He asked looking to Owen.
"You wouldn't understand." Owen told him simply.
Rose noticed a light in the distance and gave the copper a questioning glance.
"What's that light over there?" She asked him.
"It's an official village hall, village meeting tonight that's why I'm here." He explained.
"Lets go." She told Owen before he had a chance to finish speaking and they quickly set off in the direction of the hall.
They followed the road until they could see the village hall in the distance, the officer was following behind them but said nothing else to them. They weren't far away when they suddenly heard a scream coming from the woods beside the road, it sounded familiar but they couldn't be certain so they diverted from the path and quickly followed the sound. Rose and Owen both had their guns drawn as they followed the sound of a struggle, they were shocked when they realised the scream had come from Tosh.
"Get off her or I will shoot you!" Owen warned her attacker, pointing his gun at his head.
He was met with a laugh and after giving him another moment to obey, he kicked the guy off of Tosh and trained the gun on him once more. Rose dropped to the ground beside her friend, pulling her close with a relieved sigh.
"It's ok, you're ok, we saw the torchlight." Rose explained, pulling back and checking to make sure she was alright.
"They murdered all the villagers, they're cannibalising the bodies." Tosh told them with a sob, Rose looked over at the attacker in shock before pulling Tosh close once more.
"You're safe now, it's ok." Rose reassured her.
"You can arrest him now." She told the officer, looking up at him as he stood watching the scene unfold.
"I said you can arrest him." She repeated when he didn't move.
"Are you gonna arrest me Hugh?" The man asked the police officer with a laugh and he finally stepped forward with a smirk.
"That'd be a laugh wouldn't it, my own uncle." The officer said, pulling out his gun and pointing it at Owen.
Rose looked up in surprise, standing quickly she pulled out her own gun and pointed it at the police officer.
"Put the gun down, don't you hurt him." She told him, her voice full of fear.
"Shoot the bastard, split his skull." The man told his nephew with a grin.
"Put the fucking gun down!" Rose shouted at him, tears filling her eyes as she tried to regain control of the situation.
"Pull the trigger Hugh!" The cannibal dared his nephew.
"I will shoot you, put the gun down!" Rose continued frantically.
Her hand was starting to shake and she glanced over at Owen, she couldn't bare to lose anyone else, not after Susie, not after everyone else she had lost by coming back. He shook his head at her and she frowned, she stared at him for a few moments and realised there was nothing else they could do. Loosening the grip she had on her gun, she allowed the officer to take it from her before pointing it back at her.
The cannibal got up and after taking Owen's gun too had all three of them at gunpoint.
"Lets go." He told his nephew who nodded.
He pulled Tosh up off the ground by her handcuffs whilst pointing his gun at Owen and the officer grabbed Rose by her hair. She clutched at her side as she was half dragged along with the others towards the village hall.
They were forced into a building that looked more like a slaughter house than a village hall, the trio were met with a group of people who didn't seem surprised by their entrance.
"Who are these people?" Tosh asked looking around at the group.
"This is our village." A woman told her with a laugh.
"The villagers are dead." Rose spat back and was met with more laughter.
"They're all involved, they've all been doing it." Tosh said in realisation.
"This is our harvest." The man from before told them simply and Rose thought she might actually be sick.
"Only in the bloody countryside." Owen said looking at him in disgust.
"You sick fuckers." He continued and they advanced on them, the officer grabbed Owen and the other man grabbed Rose and Tosh before pushing them through a sheet curtain and into another room.
Rose cried out as she stumbled further into the room, she was pushed forward and landed on the ground next to Kieran.
"You ok?" She asked him, pulling him up as one of the cannibals came to stand beside them.
"Where's Ianto?" Tosh demanded and Rose watched in horror as he grabbed a hooded figure and pulled him up so he was in view of the others.
He removed the sack covering Ianto's face and slapped his face to wake him up, the welshman's eyes shot open and he looked at them in fear of what was to come.
"It's time to be bled." He told them, grabbing a dirty butchers knife off the table in front of him and holding it to Ianto's throat.
"Takes a long time, but definitely makes the meat taste better." He continued, pausing when the room suddenly began to shake.
He let Ianto go and moved forward towards the door to identify the source whilst Rose rushed forward and took his place, wrapping her arm around him she held him close.
"You're alright, I've got you." She whispered in his ear, resting her head against his shoulder as she tried to keep her emotions in check.
The ground continued to shake as a few of the villagers stepped forward, those with gun had them aimed at the door as the noise of what sounded like an engine got closer. Before any of them had time to react, an old farming vehicle came crashing through, knocking some of them down. Gwen and Jack stepped out and made quick work of disarming all of the villagers, they fired non fatal shots and thought they had got them all when the police officer attempted to reach for his gun.
"Oh really?" Jack questioned, pulling out his pistol and firing a shot at his hand before he had a chance.
He then turned on the man he believed to be the leader of this sick cult, pulling him up by his collar he pressed his pistol against his throat and would have happily pulled the trigger if Gwen hadn't called out to stop him.
"These people don't deserve warnings." He told her, not looking away from the man as he pressed his gun harder against his neck.
"Let me question him, I have to understand, I need to know why." She pleaded with her boss.
"They're injured, they need to go to the hospital." Tosh chimed in and Gwen looked over at them.
"Owen, you control the bleeding and then phone the police." She told them before looking back at Jack.
"Just give us an hour with him Jack, then he's all yours." Rose asked, coming to stand beside him.
He paused for a moment before sighing and letting the man go. Rose gripped his shoulder and leaned against him, she glanced over at Gwen and the two women shared a mutual look of understanding.
The real police had been called and Owen patched up the villagers as best he could before they arrived with the paramedics. Jack, Rose and Gwen brought the leader back to the pub so they could talk to him before they handed him over to the police. The two women sat across from him whilst Jack sat a short distance away, letting them take charge but on hand in case he needed to step him.
"The whole village was involved." Gwen surmised and she was met with a blank state.
"Every generation, its our tradition, once a decade we target those travelling through, those most likely to disappear." He explained, his voice void of all emotion.
"And you butcher them." Rose chimed in bluntly.
"What sort of people do you have to be to wake up in the morning and decide this is what you wanna do?" She asked, disgusted but also genuinely curious as to how a human being could do this to another person.
He didn't respond, only stared at her and Gwen leaned forward in her seat.
"Why do you do it?" Gwen asked.
"Why do you care?" He wondered.
"We have seen things you wouldn't believe, and this is the only thing we can't understand." Rose told him simply.
He looked over at Jack for a moment, a wide grin on his face before he looked back at Rose and Gwen.
"That's enough." Jack chimed in, standing up and making his way over to escort him out to the police.
"I'll tell you something though." He said suddenly and Jack paused for a moment.
"But you have to let me whisper." He added, a single tear running down his cheek.
Rose glanced up at Jack and then back at him before nodding, he leaned forward in his seat and Jack held his collar so he couldn't get any closer to her or Gwen.
"Because it made me happy." He said quietly.
Jack pulled him away and dragged him out of his chair, he pushed him towards the door and out to the waiting officers, leaving both Gwen and Rose behind to try and process what they had just been told.
They sat in silence for a short while before slowly making their way outside to join the others. Gwen decided to take a walk to clear her head and Rose made a b-line for Jack who was stood beside Owen.
"I'm just gonna.." Owen started, his words trailing off as he gestured a hand in the direction Gwen had taken before heading off that way too.
Rose came to stand in front of Jack, she was mentally and physically exhausted and her stomach hurt like a bitch. She looked up at her friend and he seemed to be in a similar state minus the gun shot wound, he pulled her into his arms and she closed her eyes for a moment, releasing a sigh of relief that their ordeal was finally over. She had one hand pressed against her side and the other around Jack's waist, holding him just as tight as he was her. The intense moment they had shared the day before felt like a distant memory after everything they had been through since.
"Can we go home?" She asked him, her voice slightly muffled by his coat.
Jack nodded, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before glancing around to see where the rest of his team were.
After getting everything squared up with the police, they left them to deal with the cannibals and were ready to head back to Cardiff. Rose refused to go to the hospital but she allowed to paramedics to redress her wound and they gave her something for the pain before letting her go. They all crammed into the suv and set off for home, ready to put the events of the last twenty four hours behind them.
It felt like hours before they were finally back in familiar territory, Jack dropped off each member of the team at home on his way back to the hub with Rose, telling them all to take a few days to recover from the ordeal and he would give them a call if something came up that required their help. Once Jack and Rose arrived back at the hub they were both dead on their feet, they headed to their rooms and were too tired to do little else other than crawl into bed and sleep for an eternity.
"I thought id seen everything, well enough of everything so that it no longer bothered me. I saw so much when I travelled with him and for a while I actually thought I would be doing that forever, me and him, for my forever anyway. And then I lost him, he was the only one who understood. Mum, and Mickey and even Pete tried but they just didn't get it. I spent years trying to come back, I was stupid to think he wouldn't have moved on, it was selfish of me to think he wouldn't. I spent all that time thinking I had something to come back to that I didn't even care to consider what I was leaving behind."
She paused her monologue briefly, resting her head against the doorframe she let out a sigh before continuing.
"I regretted it at first, coming back. I knew it was a one way trip, and there was no way of getting back if I ended up in the wrong place or if I did get back and he'd moved on, it was a chance I had to take. I thought he was all I had and when I did make it back and he had moved on, I thought I was all alone."
She paused again and turned, facing the man who was patiently listening to her speech. He had his hands in his pockets and was leaning against his desk, watching her with an expression she couldn't read. She chose her words carefully, she knew what she wanted and could only hope the feeling was mutual. Moving away from the door, she closed some of the distance between them and he did the same.
"But I was wrong." She finished, looking up at him with a sad smile.
He pulled his hands from his pockets and reached forward, cupping her cheek with his hand he gave her a smile.
"You never have to feel like that again." He told her.
Rose's smile grew and she closed the remaining distance between herself and Jack, pressing her lips against his it took him the briefest of moments before he responded. She slipped a hand through his hair whilst the other gripped his waist, whilst his went around her waist to pull her closer, he was careful to avoid putting pressure around her still fresh wound. The kiss intensified and they both knew this was different from any they had shared before, Rose slipped his braces off his shoulders with one hand whilst tugging his shirt out from his trousers with her other, her actions were making it clear to Jack where she was hoping this would be heading, and he wasn't about to protest.
"You sure about this?" He mumbled against her lips.
She hummed in agreement, smirking as she began unbuttoning his shirt. He moved a hand around her hip and gave her bum a quick squeeze which earned him a giggle from Rose before he slipped his hand under her shirt and let his fingers caress her soft skin. She had his shirt nearly completely unbuttoned when she suddenly stopped, she pulled away and smiled when he looked at her with a frown.
"I just think we should take this somewhere more private." She told him, giving him another quick kiss but pulling back before he had time to deepen it.
They were alone in the hub, no one was due in for work for another couple of days but Rose still didn't want to take the risk that someone might turn up unexpectedly and interrupt them.
"Fine." He said, sighing dramatically before grinning at her and reaching for her hand.
"Your place or mine?" He asked her, wriggling his eyebrows seductively as he led her down the corridor towards their rooms.
She rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her smile, things would change between them after tonight but neither of them could deny that they looked forward to what was to come. Because whatever happened, they would deal with it together.
And that is Countrycide wrapped up. I hope you liked the direction I took in regards to Jack and Rose, as always feel to let me know your thoughts and if you have any ideas for further episodes i'm always open to suggestions. Enjoy!